After Arizona was proclaimed a territory in 1863, Tombstone was by far one of the most notorious of the rough-and-tumble towns that sprang up during the rush for mineral wealth. It came about practically overnight in 1877, when prospector Ed Schieffelin struck one of the west's richest veins of silver.

Once considerably larger than Tucson to its west, Tombstone is quiet these days. Visitors can watch replays of the gunfights that used to break out along Allen Street. The best known of these took place at the OK Corral. This site, as well as the town's once-busy bone yard, Boot Hill, are now popular tourist attractions.

When Tombstone's mines flooded in 1886, the seat of the newly established Cochise County (named for the chief of the Chiricahua Apache who waged war against the area's troops and settlers for almost a dozen years) was moved to the nearby boomtown of Bisbee. This community’s wealth was in copper, not silver, and success was much longer-lived, as the last mine didn't close until 1975. Here, see the gigantic hole left by the Lavender Pit Mine, which yielded some 94 million tons of copper. Tours of the nearby Queen Mine are led by one of the town's retired miners. Before boarding the mine train and descending underground, visitors are provided a slicker, helmet and miner’s headlamp.

Before the neighboring community of Douglas became the copper-smelting center for Bisbee in 1902, it was the site of the annual roundup for ranchers from Mexico and the U.S. - among them John Slaughter, who was sheriff of Cochise County after Wyatt Earp, and whose 300-acre ranch, John Slaughter Ranch, is now a National Historic Landmark and home of the Johnson Historical Museum of the Southwest.

Not far to the north, Arizona's last battle between Native Americans and U.S. troops is commemorated at Fort Bowie National Historical Site, in the Dos Cabezas (Two-Headed) Mountains. The fort was raised by U.S. troops in the heart of Chiricahua Apache land in 1862, in part to protect a Butterfield stagecoach stop. Fighting continued on and off until 1886, when Geronimo, the new leader of the Apaches, surrendered.

For many years Ajo, like Bisbee to its east, was a thriving Phelps Dodge company mining town. A lookout point reveals the New Cornelia Open Pit Mine, which produced millions of tons of copper before it finally closed in 1985.

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Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau 100 South Church Avenue Tucson, AZ 85701 (800) 638-8350 (520) 624-1817 Tombstone Chamber of Commerce 105 South Fourth Street (at Allen Street) Tombstone, AZ 85638 (520) 457-9317 Bisbee Chamber of Commerce One Main Street Bisbee, AZ 85603 (520) 432-5421

Queen Mine Tour Bisbee, AZ 85603 John Slaughter Ranch 6153 Geronimo Trail Douglas, AZ 85608 (520) 558-2474 Fort Bowie National Historic Site 3203 South Old Fort Bowie Road Bowie, AZ 85605 (520) 847-2500 Ajo Chamber of Commerce 400 Taladro Street Ajo, AZ 85321 (520) 387-7742